The only way I can imagine this possibly affecting me is if I travel abroad and wish to buy a prepaid SIM. In that case, I suppose I would have to take a couple of minutes to cut down that SIM with a pair of scissors.

I voted "Yay".
I love new stuff and like when evolutions of established things happens.
And the Micro-Sim not only gives us smaller cards, it gives us more storing capabilities.
I'll just be worried if my carrier here in Denmark (Nordic / Europe) will have it in stock anytime soon.

In the US customers are not used to swapping sim cards. Before you had 3G/GSM, the cell line was actually the phone itself so swapping lines was simply not an option.

In contrast, in Europe we've had GSM for almost twenty years. We're pretty accustomed to having several SIM cards or swapping sims when travelling around. It's a pretty standard thing.

For my iPhone 3g, I have my operator's Sim card (Movistar Spain), the one provided when I bought the phone, but I also have an italian sim card (Tim IT) that I use when travelling around the European Union. The reasons are mainly financial.. while using my spanish sim card within the EU would cost me 1 euro a megabyte, with TIM I pay 1 eur a day for 30 megabytes.. pretty reasonable.

How would you do that with microsims?
Risking damaging sim cards when cutting them down.. also.. what about factory unlocked iPhones? Will every operator in the world start cutting sim cards to micro sim sizes just for the sake of one single phone that uses them?

The micro-SIM standard was created by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, so my guess is that it's an evolving implementation that will likely become more prevalent in Europe before we see it all over the US (true of most cellular standards, I guess).

But if both the iPad and the new iPhone are using micro-SIMs, I'll bet we see a lot more worldwide availability before long.

The micro-SIM standard was created by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, so my guess is that it's an evolving implementation that will likely become more prevalent in Europe before we see it all over the US (true of most cellular standards, I guess).

But if both the iPad and the new iPhone are using micro-SIMs, I'll bet we see a lot more worldwide availability before long.

Click to expand...

it was created over 13 years ago and so far no one but Apple is using them..

The questions is, will you be able to use the data plan on both the iPad and the iPhone using the iPad's microSim with the adapter? or it could be the other way around (iPhone's current large sim cut down to the smaller microSim).
In other words, will AT&T's network notice the different units and/or will they be able to do something about it?
I guess we really won't know until the 3G comes out and someone tests it.

so how do i use my existing 3gs sim on vodafone with the new phone?,if i buy a sim free phone/or PAYG 4g...without contract..how do i get my existing sim to fit in the new phone without changing my number with all the hassle that involves....as my current contract isnt due for renewal untill Jan next year...any help????

it was created over 13 years ago and so far no one but Apple is using them..

Click to expand...

Yes. I'll bet that stimulates a lot more worldwide availability since the products that the micro-SIM is in are/will be two of the most ubiquitous and sought after SIM-bearing mobile devices in the world.

I'd guess micro-SIM was designed back in the days when it was assumed that the holy grail for cell phones was going to be smaller and smaller. With the ascendancy smart phones, they had to have a usable screen and a keyboard, so they got bigger again and the smaller form factor of the micro-SIM became less important. Who knows why Apple decided to go that route now, but no doubt it will have an impact on micro-SIM availability as well as adapters and probably cutting dies.

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.